OBITUARY NOTICES Dr

OBITUARY NOTICES Dr. Hartwig Hirschfeld Dr. Hartwig Hirschfeld, who died on the 10th January, 1934, was born in Thorn, Prussia, in 1854. He was educated at the Royal Marien Gymnasium in Posen, at the University . of Berlin, and later, at Strasburg, where he became a pupil of Professor Noeldeke, the most learned Arabist of his time. There he graduated, proceeding Ph.D. in 1878. After a year's compulsory service in the Prussian Army, he obtained a travelling scholarship which enabled him to go to Paris. Here he read Arabic and Hebrew with Professor Derenbourg, subsequently returning to Berlin to continue his studies. He concentrated his attention upon Hebrew- Arabic literature and upon the Koran. In 1889, as Principal of the Montefiore College, Ramsgate, I offered Dr. Hirschfeld the post of Professor of Semitic Languages, Biblical Exegesis, and Philosophy; and in 1901 he was appointed to a similar position at Jews' College, London. He filled the University College lectureship in Semitic Epigraphy from 1903; was appointed Reader in Ethiopic in 1906, and Goldsmith Lecturer in Hebrew in 1924, retaining the latter post almost until his death. Hirschfeld was a man of high character, strong principles, marked erudition, and pre-eminently sound, reliable, scholarship. Of his many works only the more important can be referred to here, Jiidische Elemente im Koran and a German trans- lation of the original Arabic of Judah ha-Levi's Kuzari (1885); a critical edition of the Arabic text (1887); an English trans- lation (1905), of which a revised edition appeared in 1932 ; the Assabinya (an Arabic philosophic poem by Musa b. Tubi) in the Report of the Montefiore College, Ramsgate, for 1894; Beitrage zur Erklarung des Koran (1886), elaborated into

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New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Koran, published by our Society in 1902 ; Sketch of Hebrew Grammar (1913); Quirquisani Studies (1918); Commentary on Deuteronomy (1925), and among his bibliographical writings, a Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. of the Montefiore Library (1904). A number of his essays and reviews appeared in this and other Oriental journals. M. GASTER.

Berthold Laufer The tragic death of Dr. Berthold Laufer on 13th September, 1934, has robbed the world of a fine scholar and a charming and sympathetic personality. " Dr. Laufer was born in Cologne on 11th, October, 1874. He was educated at a Cologne gymnasium, the University of Berlin, and the Seminary for Oriental Languages in Berlin. In 1897 he earned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig. He came to the United States in 1898 and soon gained high repute as an ethnologist and anthro- pologist. Between 1899 and 1904 he conducted expeditions among the native tribes of Siberia and in China. For several years he served as a lecturer on anthropology and Asiatic languages at Columbia University. In 1907 he joined the staff of the Field Museum and in a short time became Associate Curator of Anthropology. Since 1915 he had been Curator of the Department. In recognition of his important researches and other work he was recipient of many honors from learned societies, Universities, and other scientific organizations." l Laufer's principal field of research was in the Far East. Some of his earliest published work deals with Tibetan and Mongolian subjects, but he is best known in Europe for his numerous publications on Chinese art and archaeology. 1 From the Field Museum News, October, 1934. I am indebted to Professor Yetts for drawing attention to this article and to other items of information used in this notice.